Language Culture Gastronomy

Which coursebook?

Having a coursebook can be useful when learning a new language. It helps you to take control of your learning, see where you are heading and also it makes it easy for you to track your progress.

There are many coursebooks available on the market but not many are well structured and quite a lot are very boring focusing on accuracy rather than fluency. Of course accuracy is important, but if your main focus is grammar, it might discourage you as you will find that progress is slow. Whereas if you focus on fluency, then you might amaze yourself how quick you will be able to have a conversation in French. Thereafter you can work on accuracy. Obviously, it all depends on what kind of learner you are and you need to find what works for you.

In my opinion, the best book on the market at the moment is Façon de Parler published by Hodder. It is available at two levels: Beginner and Intermediate. The lessons are lively and fun, following the lives of a group of people who come from different regions in France. There are a few errors in the book but overall it is well structured and organised. You can buy the audio CDs and there is also a workbook available for further practice.

One disappointing thing though is that the Language Lab App advertised on the cover of the book is not available. I contacted the company recently and they told me that they were working on it. Let’s hope they sort out the problem soon.